Vapostori saga: Public calls for Zanu PF youths’ arrest

LAWYERS yesterday called for the arrest of Zanu PF youths who destroyed artefacts at Madzibaba Ishmael Mufani’s Johane Masowe Echishanu shrine in Budiriro on Monday.

Human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama said the youths should face charges of malicious damage to property as they violated the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act by destroying the artefacts.

“This is lawlessness. The youths should be arrested for malicious damage to property,” he said.

Muchadehama said Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (AACZ) president Bishop Johannes Ndanga should also be held as an accomplice as he was said to have been present when the artefacts were destroyed.

He said police should not have acted in a manner which showed revenge over their battering by members of the sect.

Nine police officers, two journalists and an ACCZ official were injured last Friday after they were assaulted by marauding members of the sect who were protesting an ACCZ decision to ban their sect over allegations of human rights abuses.

“Police were supposed to investigate, arrest and bring them [sect members] to court than resort to tit-for-tat behaviour,” Muchadehama said.

Another lawyer, Jessie Majome, criticised the police for allegedly escorting the youths who were committing a crime. “They were supposed to get a court order to destroy the property. What they did with the Zanu PF youths was unlawful. This was totally a form of punishment,” Majome said.

A non-governmental organisation, Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT), also weighed in saying the “sudden involvement of political party cadres in the dispute serves no one, but has the potential to escalate the conflict and violence”.

“Destruction of property is a form of violence that is offensive and is equally bad as the beating up of police and journalists. No violence is good or better,” HZT said in a statement yesterday.

Lawyer Obert Gutu said authorities should act on the Zanu PF youths or risk the country becoming a “banana republic.”

He said the use of party youths by the police was tantamount to the privatisation of the force into an armed militia of a political organisation.

“So the police have found it fit and proper to sub-contract and hire a bunch of Zanu PF hooligans, thugs and hoodlums to deal with Madzibaba Ishmael Mufani’s apostolic sect?” he asked.

Analyst Alexander Rusero said the demonstration by Zanu PF youths was stage-managed.

NewsDay readers also condemned the destruction of the artefacts.

“The youths had no right to destroy Madzibaba Ishmael’s property, they should be arrested and charged with malicious damage to property and also the police who led the youths to Madzibaba’s shrine should be arrested as well,” a reader, Onismus Sithole, said.

Nelson Mhlanga said it was unheard of for police to lead a group of youths to burn a shrine.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said anyone with complaints over the destruction of their property should make a report to the police to allow investigations to take place.

@publicprotector. These youths are nothing more than zanupf sponsored drunken, drug addicted thugs and murderers. We all know it and expect nothing less from them. Their day is coming though!
I trust that Vapostori have now seen the light! Wonder who they will vote for next election?

This clearly shows double standards, this partisan police spokesperson is clearly nuts if a crime is committed you should just investigate and arrest the perpetrators. What the Zanu Pf youths did is breaking the country’s laws.Is she trying to tell us that all the arrests made by the police somebody made a report.Hauna nyadzi.

The majority of us Zimbabweans are big speakers and less actors. These Vapositori have shown us that actions are better than words. Even if they torture them in prison, the fact remains that these Vapositori are better fighters than the so called anti-riot police.

The best argument against democracy “go and spend 5 minutes talking to the average voter” you can’t tell me these drunken moronic youths have any understanding of an economy or politics or how to move the country forward in the 21st century?? Fools!!!!!

Ya neh, izinto zamashona. Now they are drunk with power and are killing themselves. When it was Gukurawundi who ever thought that one day it will be a dog eat dog.I remember my uncle telling one gukurawundindi swina ethi”lemini iyeza lakuwe!’ now he is watching from the terraces as they burn each other’s battocks and throw each other into the disused mine shafts. God is for everyone!VIVA MUGABE VIVA I love you.

my friend Mdidi,two wrongs don’t make a right,i think your language is vulgar(swina).This has nothing to do with being Shona,Ndebele,Khalanga etc,this is about a State that doesn’t respect its citizens and the laws it manufactured,the fact is in Zimbabwe there is law for everybody else and there is a Law for the mighty ZANU supporters,which is injustice,we should all of us shout at the top of our voices,dennouncing scorning such a system instead of tearing each other along tribal or racial lines

this is a tip of an iceberg. the general populace is irate and this is just the beginning of it all.Watch out the used and refused zanu pf small misguided boys. Muchadya izvozvo.Burning a shrine remember its not burning god.Little knowledge is very dangerous.Life and praying goes on. Munongopindira nezvisiri zvenyu. How can police send riot to prayers.It serves them right.

What an inappropriate name publicprotector. But then again so it was when he called himself Apolitical. Why he hates Lawyers and Journalists is a mystery. If he had his way the moment you qualify from law school or Graduate for journalism he would arrest you.

This Charamba Lady is something else,or maybe deliberately so,now she wants the Church to report a case,that violations,by these misguided and mindless hooligans,happenened in the presence of Police,which Police are they supposed to report to.She should be investigating why the People who are paid to uphold the Law did not arrest the Law breakers,the constitution says no one is above the law,a crime was committed,so the Youths and Police who watched acts of crime and did nothing should face the music.This has been the plight of Zimbabweans for decades,Police and Youths terrorising and brutalising the masses at will.A serious change is change is needed

Lawyer Obert Gutu said authorities should act on the Zanu PF youths or risk the country becoming a “banana republic.” Open up your eyes Gutu, what do you think we are now, we have gone past banana for sure

Before I get to Ishmael and his bunch of crazies,I want to say OOH, WHAT A HARVEST. Murimi and co killed it this year.
Now to this nonsense.
I question the wisdom of someone who supports people who insert their fingers into their daughters private parts.R u serious?Imagine such an occult rising to be the largest “church” in Zim,penetrating all levels of society?
I shudder to think what would have happened to the police ,if these thugs were in their thousands.Im not sjaying the police are saints either,many a time they overstep the line.
What is hurting the “public” is that,Zanu pf yths,took it upon themselves to correct this lawlessness.If they did not heed the police,then the next in line would be the army.Then all hell would have broken loose,and our govt wld hav been demonised and double sanctioned.
The truth is,u might not like King Nebcdnzr,but he was used to “sort out” the Israelites,when they had gone astray,so it is with these youths.
Ishmael,probably sporting an afro and clean shaven by now,should be thrown into jail and far from society as possible

Some people are walking dead among us.I mean,arrest who?Where and when has that happened here in Zimbabwe?BE WARNED.You,yes you,you will be arrested for asking for the arrest of these youths.Or worse,they will catch up with you one of these sunny,and cool days and beat you to an inch of your donor funded life.So(i wag a long finger)be warned mfana…

Mdidi your comment makes sorrowful reading. This is not about Ndebele and Shona damn you. Please dont forget in the past Ndebeles wronged the Shonas and some Shonas wronged Ndebeles. That is a thing of the past. For nearly a century during the Mzilikazi/Lobengula era the Ndebele hordes annilated, supprressed, abused, rapped the Shona people. And for a few years in the 80s some Shona at the instigation of Ndebeles like Enos Nkala murdered and plundered Ndebele Communities. But who is a fully blooded Ndebele anyway. Mzilikazi came with 300 Ndebeles from South and within a fews years Ndebeles had grown to half a million. Ndebels raised Shona men as well as women. By the way your great grand could be that Shona father or mother. The shonas were not sterile and even your wife, mother and sister not forgeting your daughter can confess that Shona men are wonderfully endowed. So instead of focusing on trivial and long gone tribal issues we should focus on fighting an intially noble cause(Zanu Pf) which was turned into an evil system by such as Robert Mugabe and Nkalas. We should be fighting pillars of oppression such as Mujuru, Jonathan Moyo, Obert Mpofu etc.Gukurahundi is gone and thing of the past as much as Lobengula’s ‘Find, Grab, Murder and Burn policy. These two peiods of madness should be buried and forgotten. How many girls did Mzilikazi and Lobengula abduct compared to Boko Haram. Should we call for a retrospective International investigation and trial.

Murimi Wanhasi if you have been following what has been discussed here you would know that the mood here is not about criminal allegations against this sect. What happened to innocent until proved guilty? The point being if these youths done this in the absence of the Police we would say violence caused by public anger. They stood and watched. I don’t remember Zimbabwe having a Sharia law clause in any of the constitutions since independence. I do know that people have taken the law into their own hands and been punished for it. If you let this kind of thing go out of hand then you will soon have Kangaroo courts and to the hell with the judiciary. This sort of thing has a habit of turn on those that allow it to happen. As far as I am concerned the ZRP at this time and point are impotent and play to the whims of individuals. Whatever else you are I don’t believe you are stupid. It would be naive of you to believe that those that write to this forum are stupid. I say this because it is as plain as day what these people are saying. Unless of course you want to just annoy some of them because they have a different view.